Essential Phone

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The Essential Phone is doing so much right: elegant design, big screen, long battery life, and clean software. And on top of all that, it has ambitions to do even more with those modules. If you asked Android users what they wanted in the abstract, I suspect a great many of them would describe this exact device. But while the camera is pretty good, it doesn’t live up to the high bar the rest of the phone market has set.

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Expert reviews and ratings

In many ways, the first Essential Phone seems designed almost entirely to satisfy a single category of user: someone who wants a display to cover nearly the whole front of their phone. In that respect, the PH-1's scant metal rim and glass front and back...

The Essential Phone is a great idea in offering a phone which supposedly just offers the essentials. While it seemed to stumble at launch, software updates have rectified some of the issues and the camera is slowing getting better with each one as well....

The Essential phone is a beautifully crafted piece of technology. Despite the bugs, the device feels really, really good in the hand. The phone's design works. The screen's design works too, regardless of concerns one might have had with the front...

Unfortunately, smartphone cameras have gotten so good that Essential's purely OK shooter will frustrate some. The lack of certain popular niceties, like a headphone jack and water resistance, also make the PH-1 a tougher sell than expected. All told, this is a phenomenal first try and an undeniably solid device, but we're really looking forward to Essential's next attempt.

Minimalism can ironically go too far – without dialed-in software to back up what is a beautifully-crafted and well-executed piece of hardware, the Essential Phone will greatly appeal to some and frustrate others looking for...

The Essential Phone is doing so much right: elegant design, big screen, long battery life, and clean software. And on top of all that, it has ambitions to do even more with those modules. If you asked Android users what they wanted in the abstract, I suspect a great many of them would describe this exact device. But while the camera is pretty good, it doesn’t live up to the high bar the rest of the phone market has set.

There’s absolutely room for a phone that doesn’t shove its manufacturer and advertising partners in your face. If you buy this phone, I think you’ll appreciate that about it. You’ll also realize that Essential, like everyone else, is still working out how to truly change the smartphone game.

Calling it “essential,” however, is a fallacy. It’s not something you need to have; it might not even be something you want to have. There are plenty of other impressive smartphones on the market—and, as always, more coming soon, both from Android handset makers and Apple—that will suit you just as well if you are interested in a high-end unlocked phone. And if, like many people, you don’t have $700 to spend on a smartphone, there are also many capable options that cost a lot less.

Essential is the new kid on the block but it's backed by the very man who created Android, Andy Rubin. The Essential Phone isn't being sold on features or gimmicks, but rather an experience. In a flooded market where even the big shots are struggling,...

Again, how long do we wait for Essential to figure this out?With big money and big names involved, Essential was a deserved recipient of intrigue when it launched as a company with the promise of a great Android phone (and so much more). Weeks later, I...

I normally like to wait at least a year to give a smartphone the old "review re-do" treatment, but this is a special case. The Andy Rubin-led startup Essential changed everything when it slashed the price of its namesake flagship by $200 barely two...

It has only been two weeks since Essential dropped the price of the Essential Phone to $499, yet here we are talking about a further price reduction. Best Buy (and Amazon too) is now listing the phone at $449.99, which brings the total discount to $250...